Online Program

Oral

The Affordable Care Act still leaves 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. uninsured, in addition to new immigrants who have not had U.S. residency for at least five years. One of the eight states that houses the bulk of these immigrants is Illinois - many of them Latino and densely populated in Chicago. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 Current Population Survey, there are more than 272,000 undocumented Latino immigrants in Illinois that are uninsured. Only emergency medical services are guaranteed to these patients. Centro Sin Fronteras (CSF), in partnership with medical students at Rush Medical Center, have developed the Youth Health Service Corps (YHSC) campaign to respond to the healthcare dilemma of uninsured, new immigrants within Chicago. The Chicago area YHSC builds on youth capacity to develop community outreach, promote health and increase health literacy, as well as enhance individual and community -level empowerment. Utilizing a mixed methods and a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach that surveys and interviews high school students enrolled in YHSC, CSF and the primary investigator have developed a partnership with the goal to document the impact of the YHSC program with regard to its outreach within immigrant communities, as well as its impact on YHSC participant youth. This 90 minute session would: 1) discuss the formulation of this program and the partnerships that have been involved; 2) discuss program structure and how building trust within the immigrant community has been critical to its success; 3) allow youth participants to share their experiences with the program; and 4) describe the challenges and success of this program in the context of an impact study utilizing a CBPR approach. The following is a brief description of these four proposed sessions, which would allow 10-15 minutes of discussion in the end of the session.

Session Objectives: The Affordable Care Act still leaves 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. uninsured, in addition to new immigrants who have not had U.S. residency for at least five years. One of the eight states that houses the bulk of these immigrants is Illinois - many of them Latino and densely populated in Chicago. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 Current Population Survey, there are more than 272,000 undocumented Latino immigrants in Illinois that are uninsured. Only emergency medical services are guaranteed to these patients. Centro Sin Fronteras (CSF), in partnership with medical students at Rush Medical Center, have developed the Youth Health Service Corps (YHSC) campaign to respond to the healthcare dilemma of uninsured, new immigrants within Chicago. The Chicago area YHSC builds on youth capacity to develop community outreach, promote health and increase health literacy, as well as enhance individual and community -level empowerment. Utilizing a mixed methods and a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach that surveys and interviews high school students enrolled in YHSC, CSF and the primary investigator have developed a partnership with the goal to document the impact of the YHSC program with regard to its outreach within immigrant communities, as well as its impact on YHSC participant youth. This 90 minute session would: 1) discuss the formulation of this program and the partnerships that have been involved; 2) discuss program structure and how building trust within the immigrant community has been critical to its success; 3) allow youth participants to share their experiences with the program; and 4) describe the challenges and success of this program in the context of an impact study utilizing a CBPR approach. The following is a brief description of these four proposed sessions, which would allow 10-15 minutes of discussion in the end of the session.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)